Post by StevePulaski on Jul 1, 2011 15:09:49 GMT -5
The gang in Accepted.
Rating: ★★★
Accepted is an original and highly energized comedy with lots of characters and all of them equally as funny. It serves as the 2000's version of the classic 1978 Animal House, and doesn't get all hung up on cliches. The ending especially is a fantastic way to wrap up this movie.
It's hard enough to build a movie like this from the ground up when you really haven't seen a movie like this before. Movies about kids going to College, or trying to have sex before College is common, but seeing a group of kids construct their own College is new. It's not like when there is a nerd, who falls in love with popular blonde, gets into some antics, confesses his love to her at the end, movie's over. There hasn't been a movie like this done before. The director and screenwriter couldn't look at another movie for hints. They were their own rubric. Not other successful movies.
The plot: Bartleby Gaines (Long) is a high school Senior who is rejected from several colleges much to the dismay of his strict parents. In an act of desperation, Bartleby fakes an acceptance letter from the fictional College called South Harmon Institute of Technology (an acronym for a beautiful word). He forces his buddy Sherman "Schrader" (Hill) to construct a fake, but seemingly official website for the school to prove to show his dad an overview of the institution.
Bartleby and his friends Hands (Short), who lost a scholarship in Football, Rory (Thayer), who was denied acceptance into Yale, and Glen (Herschman) who got a zero on the SAT go to a rundown mental hospital, repair it, and pass it off to their parents as a College. But due to a flaw on the website that allows anyone acceptance to the College by clicking on an area, hundreds of kids show up at South Harmon awaiting to have a great College experience.
It turns out at this College, the students party and screw around the whole day. Bartleby uses the tuition money to buy things like a half-pipe, an in-ground swimming pool, and material to fix up other parts of the "College."
I like Justin Long in pretty much everything he's done. From his "let's do it" attitude in Jeepers Creepers, to his hunger for winning in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story he's been a joy to see on screen. The supporting cast of Blake Lively, Jonah Hill, and Columbus Short also work in the movie's favor providing just enough laughs to recommend the film to someone looking for a good comedy.
Lewis Black plays the "Dean" of the South Harmon, the alcoholic and foul-mouthed uncle of Schrader who spends his days teaching the kids the lies of the government and how to live an independent life. Never seeing Black in a movie before, I was pleasantly surprised about his role in the film.
Accepted's end scene, like I said, is not only a great wrap up, but it's true to human nature. Some kids should not be looked down upon because of their desire to stand out. Everyone is supposed to be who they are, and not someone they are not. The whole moral of the College is changed in the final scenes of the film. It started out as a lie to the folks, it ends as a message to all students who want to become something.
Starring: Justin Long, Columbus Short, Blake Lively, Jonah Hill, Maria Thayer, Mark Derwin, Anthony Heald, Lewis Black, and Diora Baird. Directed by: Steve Pink.